New Release of Miniclient (1.2.8)

[VCRUser]

The screen mirroring also works on Chromecast, it turns out. You have to go into the Chromecast app (or one of its successors-Google Cast or Google Home) and turn on screen mirroring. Of course in either of these cases, bandwidth can get lost because the show is coming from your Sage server to your Android phone or tablet, and then from your phone/tablet to your Chromecast. But still, it's an extra extender if/when needed. and greatly extends functionality.

[fresnoboy]

I think you can build cast support into the directly, in which case you can route the video directly to the chromecast device and bypass the phone for the video streaming, though control and UI can still run there.

thx
mike

[VCRUser]

That would be a terrific addition

[Pelicanjoe]

Anyone try to use the miniclient on a chromebook with the new BETA Android functionality introduced?

I currently don't have a chromebook, but this would be one feature to put on the plus side to sway me into purchasing one.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

I finally got this working after updating to 7.19 and then 9. It is working on my LG G3 phone and my Galaxy A tablet. Both are running Android 6.0. I even got them to cast shows to my Roku stick (via screen mirroring). So now if my extender kicks the bucket (and it gave me a scare tonight), I have alternatives.

I'm having various other issues with the update from 6 to 9 in prep for the SD EPG, but this one difference is an enormous step forward in functionality. I can take my phone or tablet anywhere in my house and watch recordings just as I can on my computer with Placeshifter or my extender, plus casting to Roku in rooms without an extender or as an extender-replacement. Way, Way cool!

Sorry, HOW are you doing this? I'm running mini client on a Samsung S5 running Marshmallow, and I can't figure out how to cast its output anywhere...

[VCRUser]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Sorry, HOW are you doing this? I'm running mini client on a Samsung S5 running Marshmallow, and I can't figure out how to cast its output anywhere...

I do it with the Miracast feature, which on my Samsung tablet is hidden behind the "quick connect" tag that appears when I pull down the notifications window, where it shows settings at the top. Once enabled, I can select my Roku to mirror the screen to. On my LGG3 phone, I select "Miracast." It doesn't talk to Chromecast.

BTW, my tablet is insisting I update it to Android 7 Nougat. I hope the miniclient will still work - anyone test it with 7?

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

I do it with the Miracast feature, which on my Samsung tablet is hidden behind the "quick connect" tag that appears when I pull down the notifications window, where it shows settings at the top. Once enabled, I can select my Roku to mirror the screen to. On my LGG3 phone, I select "Miracast." It doesn't talk to Chromecast.

BTW, my tablet is insisting I update it to Android 7 Nougat. I hope the miniclient will still work - anyone test it with 7?

I believe with my Samsung Galaxy S5, 'Screen Mirroring' is the similar feature to 'Miracast', does that sound correct?

[wayner]

Does anyone have issues logging on remotely with a phone?

My phone is a BB Priv. I am able to connect to SageTV when I am on my LAN. Remotely I have connected via VPN and verified that the VPN is working. I start the SageTV app and it brings up the login screen. I swear that I am putting in the correct user/pass but I can never get it to successfully login.

[VCRUser]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I believe with my Samsung Galaxy S5, 'Screen Mirroring' is the similar feature to 'Miracast', does that sound correct?

Yes, that sounds right.

[CaliCat]

I have been trying to use a Mi Box with the Android Miniclient (v1.2.8) remotely via the Internet and have been able to connect and use the Sage UI but whenever I attempt to play a recorded TV program all I get is a black screen and no audio. I do see the progress bar at the bottom of the screen advancing the timeline. The same results occur when I try to use the Windows Placeshifter (most current version) on my laptop via the same remote Internet connection.

I have tried various options in the Miniclient/Windows Placeshifter settings (Exoplayer, IJK, dynamic streaming, no transcoding, etc.) after reading related posts on the forum and all have produced the same result, Sage UI works fine, no video or audio when a recording is played.

The same Mi Box or laptop connected to the same LAN as my Sage server works great, it's only when I move them to a remote location and connect via the Internet that the 'no video/no audio' problem occurs.

The setup is a Sage V9 server running on an Ubuntu 16.04.2 headless server behind a Sophos UTM 9 firewall that has a static Internet IPv4 address. In the Sophos UTM 9 firewall a DNAT entry was been created to forward port 31099 traffic that appears at the static Internet IPv4 address to the static LAN address of the Sage V9 server. The Sage V9 server Ubuntu installation is not running a firewall (no IPTABLES service). Internet upload speed at the Sage server location is 10Mbps. The Internet download speed at the remote location where I'm trying to use the Mi Box/Laptop is 80Mbps.

Watching a live firewall scrolling log when using the Mi Box/Laptop to connect remotely I see the port 31099 traffic to the Sage V9 server and the Sage UI appears on the Mi Box/Laptop. The next entry I see in the firewall log is traffic originating from the Mi Box/Laptop Internet IP address sent to port 7818 at the firewall's static Internet IP address (which is dropped by the firewall).

From what I've read I thought all remote Android Miniclient and Placeshifter traffic only used port 31099 for the Sage UI and streaming. Port 7818 I understand is only used when a Miniclient/Placeshifter is on the same LAN as the Sage server. Because the Internet upload/download speeds are fairly high I tried changing 'miniplayer/min_bandwidth_for_no_transcode=2000000' in Sages.properties to 20000000 and restarting the sagetv service before connecting remotely but it didn't make any difference.


Any ideas or suggestions anyone?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by CaliCat

I have been trying to use a Mi Box with the Android Miniclient (v1.2.8) remotely via the Internet and have been able to connect and use the Sage UI but whenever I attempt to play a recorded TV program all I get is a black screen and no audio. I do see the progress bar at the bottom of the screen advancing the timeline. The same results occur when I try to use the Windows Placeshifter (most current version) on my laptop via the same remote Internet connection.

I have tried various options in the Miniclient/Windows Placeshifter settings (Exoplayer, IJK, dynamic streaming, no transcoding, etc.) after reading related posts on the forum and all have produced the same result, Sage UI works fine, no video or audio when a recording is played.

The same Mi Box or laptop connected to the same LAN as my Sage server works great, it's only when I move them to a remote location and connect via the Internet that the 'no video/no audio' problem occurs.

The setup is a Sage V9 server running on an Ubuntu 16.04.2 headless server behind a Sophos UTM 9 firewall that has a static Internet IPv4 address. In the Sophos UTM 9 firewall a DNAT entry was been created to forward port 31099 traffic that appears at the static Internet IPv4 address to the static LAN address of the Sage V9 server. The Sage V9 server Ubuntu installation is not running a firewall (no IPTABLES service). Internet upload speed at the Sage server location is 10Mbps. The Internet download speed at the remote location where I'm trying to use the Mi Box/Laptop is 80Mbps.

Watching a live firewall scrolling log when using the Mi Box/Laptop to connect remotely I see the port 31099 traffic to the Sage V9 server and the Sage UI appears on the Mi Box/Laptop. The next entry I see in the firewall log is traffic originating from the Mi Box/Laptop Internet IP address sent to port 7818 at the firewall's static Internet IP address (which is dropped by the firewall).

From what I've read I thought all remote Android Miniclient and Placeshifter traffic only used port 31099 for the Sage UI and streaming. Port 7818 I understand is only used when a Miniclient/Placeshifter is on the same LAN as the Sage server. Because the Internet upload/download speeds are fairly high I tried changing 'miniplayer/min_bandwidth_for_no_transcode=2000000' in Sages.properties to 20000000 and restarting the sagetv service before connecting remotely but it didn't make any difference.


Any ideas or suggestions anyone?

Have you tried opening up 7818 to see what happens?

I assume you connecting as a placeshifter user (ie, you get a placeshifter login)?

Given that both the Android MiniClient and the Placeshifter have the same issue, it could be that the server can't transcode the mediafile on the fly. Have you looked in the server logs (sagetv_0.txt) to see if there are errors?

[CaliCat]

Hi Stuckless,

Thanks for your response!

Yes I did try opening port 7818 and it didn't make any difference and I am using placeshifter mode with a logon which is working because I get the Sage UI. I did not look at the server log (sagetv_0.txt) file until just now and I do see multiple transcoder errors (Sat 7/8 20:07:10.297 [Pusher@3b305633] Detected failure in the transcoder attempt to restart it...
Sat 7/8 20:07:10.297 [Pusher@3b305633] Using 7 threads for the transcoder). The CPU in the server is an 8 core AMD so 7 threads makes sense but it seems that the transcoder never starts.

So it seems the issue is the transcoder failure. Do you think I should reinstall the Sage server software or is there something else I could try with the current installation?

[CaliCat]

I've attached a section of (sagetv_0.txt) with the transcoder error text that occurs when I attempt to use placeshifter on my laptop via the Internet.

[smak]

Originally Posted by Pelicanjoe

Anyone try to use the miniclient on a chromebook with the new BETA Android functionality introduced?

I currently don't have a chromebook, but this would be one feature to put on the plus side to sway me into purchasing one.

I actually just did this. Definitely usable. I still need to play around with the navigation/controls a bit. I made the app full screen and I do not know how to go back.

I am currently on a Acer Chromebook 14, 14-inch Full HD, Intel Celeron Quad-Core N3160, 4GB LPDDR3

I configured it with my typical Gemstone setup.

On this box it is definitely software decoding. It seems to keep up pretty well. The only thing that jumped out in the short time was that the sports/news ticker is choppy.

I watched a little tennis, part of a movie, and a couple tv shows and everything was watchable.

When the wife gets back in town, I will test it out on her ASUS Chromebook Flip. I believe that has a little more horsepower as well as a touch screen.

[ojones]

Stuckless - Your latest version works perfectly for me on a shield on the local lan and, when remote, other than some transcode related pause/play issues that are server related, perfectly there as well. But when using remote (i.e. from a vacation house) the resolution looks limited to CIF which is aggravating WAF.

I expect this isn't a miniclient feature request per se but is there any possibility to include a white list of non-transcoding subnets in Sage or an option in the miniclient that would turn off transcoding in Sage?

Ultimately maybe the best fix would be the above plus exposing the same quality options (CIF / DVD / no transcode) that the PC version of the placeshifter uses.

With a 940Mb/s (bi-directional) fiber link for my server and 125/25 cable in my remote location (latency and packet loss aside) high-def streaming should be very feasible.

-Owen

[Taddeusz]

This part of the server code is in dire need of modernization. It really needs to be updated to support HD resolutions and to use MPEG 4 Part 10 (AVC/H.264) instead of MPEG 4 Part 2 (Xvid, etc). When it was written processing power was not as advanced or available as it is now. It made sense to use MPEG 4 Part 2.

IMHO, we should also try to support hardware accelerated transcoding.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by ojones

Stuckless - Your latest version works perfectly for me on a shield on the local lan and, when remote, other than some transcode related pause/play issues that are server related, perfectly there as well. But when using remote (i.e. from a vacation house) the resolution looks limited to CIF which is aggravating WAF.

I expect this isn't a miniclient feature request per se but is there any possibility to include a white list of non-transcoding subnets in Sage or an option in the miniclient that would turn off transcoding in Sage?

Ultimately maybe the best fix would be the above plus exposing the same quality options (CIF / DVD / no transcode) that the PC version of the placeshifter uses.

With a 940Mb/s (bi-directional) fiber link for my server and 125/25 cable in my remote location (latency and packet loss aside) high-def streaming should be very feasible.

-Owen

I agree, I that given the high speeds of today's internet, the placeshifter clients could connect directly as if it's on the same lan, if we could whitelist subnets / IPs, or likley a better approach would be to moderninze the placeshifter connection experience and offer a no-transcode option, and better transcoding experiences that Taddeusz mentioned. (Maybe you can open a defect/enhancement request around this)

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

This part of the server code is in dire need of modernization. It really needs to be updated to support HD resolutions and to use MPEG 4 Part 10 (AVC/H.264) instead of MPEG 4 Part 2 (Xvid, etc). When it was written processing power was not as advanced or available as it is now. It made sense to use MPEG 4 Part 2.

IMHO, we should also try to support hardware accelerated transcoding.

Very much agree.

[ojones]

Thanks for both of your comments. I will post this to github.

I am going to suggest initially exposing a no-transcode whitelist of subnets since that may have crossover appeal to the docker crew/vlan users.

2nd order change would be increasing resolution for transcodes and 3rd for format change. I'd appreciate it if folks could pile on on github with comments suggestions as this appears to be a pinch point for miniclient adoption.

Btw the full client appears very intolerable of spiking latency over a fast pipe so eager to see how miniclient handles full bandwidth. I have an 8ms (fiber to fiber) latency and 65ms (fiber to Comcast) wan link I can test this on. Also finally bit the bullet and bought a dual Xeon 6core 3.4ghz for my lab (until it has better things to do want to throw real time transcoding at it).

[ojones]

Stuckless - I did open up a record on Github
https://github.com/google/sagetv/iss...ment-316134940

Trying to interpret Jeff's response. Should we be playing with the properties file to control transcode behavior in miniclient?

[ojones]

Stuckless - I am at a bit of an impasse testing some guidance from Jeff and CrazyFuzzy.

They indicated the "pull method" in the miniclient settings should disable transcoding.

I've verified that method is set in the pre logon page but once a recording is started info reveals the picture is being pushed at 352x240. Is there anything I should do to troubleshoot?